Report Finds Decline in NYC Residential Eviction Filings

The NYU Furman Center recently released a brief showing an overall decline in residential evictions filed in New York City Housing Court between 2010 and 2017. The analysis draws on records from New York State’s Office of Court Administration and provides new insight on landlord-initiated cases filed in housing court, revealing trends for eviction filings, judgments (including settlement agreements), and executed warrants. The report also explores geographic disparities in eviction filings across New York City’s neighborhoods, noting that rates in certain areas remain relatively high.

The analysis shows that citywide, the total number of eviction filings is decreasing. In 2017, private landlords initiated 176,590 eviction filings, which represents a decrease of 4.6 percent from 2016 and an overall decrease of 7.8 percent from 2010. Of New York City’s five boroughs, the Bronx was the only one that deviated from the citywide downward trend; its number of filings increased between 2010 and 2016, and it ended 2017 with more filings than in 2010. In fact, all sub-borough areas within the Bronx saw the same or an increased eviction filing rate between 2010 and 2017.

Citywide, 84.3 percent of 2017 eviction filings were nonpayment cases. While the number of nonpayment filings has decreased steadily since 2011, the number of holdover cases, cases in which the landlord makes some other claim, increased annually from 2010 to 2016 and then declined from 2016 to 2017. Of all nonpayment and holdover filings, 60.3 percent of 2016 cases resulted in judgments, a 0.2 percent increase from 2015 and a 9.4 percent increase from 2010. The share of holdover cases resulting in judgments rose significantly faster than the overall rate, with 47.2 percent more cases resulting in judgments in 2016 than 2010.